BITCOIN EXCHANGES AND MONEY LAUNDERING - FBI

The latest action was made against Anthony R. Murgio and Yuri Lebedev of West Palm Beach Florida. The duo has been arrested for running an unlicensed Bitcoin exchange.

According to the press release the FBI the two men are being charged for operating this exchange through a "phony front-company and, at times, a federal credit union that Murgio acquired for purposes of the scheme":

"Since at least late 2013, MURGIO, LEBEDEV, and their co-conspirators have knowingly operated Coin.mx, a Bitcoin exchange service, in violation of federal anti-money laundering (“AML”) laws and regulations, including those requiring money services businesses like Coin.mx to meet registration and reporting requirements set forth by the United States Treasury Department. Through Coin.mx, MURGIO, LEBEDEV, and their co-conspirators enabled their customers to exchange cash for Bitcoins, charging a fee for their service. In doing so, they knowingly exchanged cash for people whom they believed may be engaging in criminal activity. MURGIO and his co-conspirators have also knowingly exchanged cash for Bitcoins for victims of “ransomware” attacks, that is, cyberattacks in which criminals (here, distributors of the ransomware known as “Cryptowall”) electronically block access to a victim’s computer system until a sum of “ransom” money, typically in Bitcoins, is paid to them. In doing so, MURGIO, and his co-conspirators knowingly enabled the criminals responsible for those attacks to receive the proceeds of their crimes, yet, in violation of federal anti-money laundering laws, MURGIO never filed any suspicious activity reports regarding any of the transactions."

The FBI says that since at least late 2014, Murgio, Lebedev and co-conspirators have operated Coin.mx

By the way, bitcoin has often been blamed for being used for Money Laundering...

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GOLD RISES FOR FIRST TIME IN 11 DAYS, BUT GAINS SEEN CAPPED

On Thursday gold stemmed the 11-day losing streak, but still held below $1,100 an ounce.

Comex gold for August delivery added $4.70, or 0.43%, to trade at $1,096.10 a troy ounce during European morning hours.

A day earlier, gold dropped to $1,085.60 before recovering mildly to close at $1,091.50, down $12.00, or 1.09%.

Prices of the yellow metal plunged to a five-year trough of $1,080.00 on Monday.

Gold has been under heavy selling pressure in recent months amid speculation the Fed will raise interest rates for the first time in eight years as soon as September.

Demand for the greenback remained buoyed after data on Wednesday showed that U.S. existing home sales rose to an eight-and-a-half year high in June.

The National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that sales of existing homes in the U.S. rose 3.2% in June to 5.49 million units, the fastest pace since February 2007. Analysts had expected the data to show a 1.2% rise - to 5.40 million units.

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BLOCKCHAIN COMPANY TO LIST ON LONDON AIM MARKET

Coinsilium says that it will list on London’s AIM market, which would make it the first such company to publicly list. Once the company is listed on London AIM market so the investors would be able to invest in the stocks and get exposure to the new technology. Company holds ownership in the range of 5% and 20%; however, the common theme is blockchain. Blockchain is the mechanics used to verify Bitcoin transactions and they believes that it is a revolutionary technology that can have huge implications for various industries.

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